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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kew Gardens 613 (talk | contribs) at 20:04, 14 September 2017 (date formats per MOS:DATEFORMAT by script). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Links

Sandbox 1
Sandbox 1

Long Island Rail Road,

Metro-North Railroad

Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
Sandbox 3
Sandbox 3

New York City Bus

New York City Bus
New York City Bus

Subway Expansion Plans

NYC Subway History Post-Unification
NYC Subway History Post-Unification

NYC Subway History Post-Unification

NYC Subway History Post-Unification
NYC Subway History Post-Unification

Dual Contracts

Dual Contracts
Dual Contracts

User:Epicgenius/sandbox/Metropolitan Transportation Authority

User:Epicgenius/sandbox/article-draft1 — Manhattan Bridge subway closure

User:Kew Gardens 613/Subways70s80s

User:Kew Gardens 613/NYSTC Annual Reports

User:Tdorante10/sandbox3 – Includes draft bus articles

User:ItzWindowsME/sandbox – Q29 draft

Queens Bus Routes and lines – A list of bus article projects

User:Epicgenius/sandbox/1 – Interesting track map drafts

User:Epicgenius/sandbox/3 – Includes draft bus articles

User:Epicgenius/sandbox/5 – Includes a draft split of Technology of the New York City Subway that I have been wanting to work on

This sandbox is for LIRR-related things. The goal is to transfer this material to the mainspace. Other users should feel free to add information that is fit, improve, and add references to the work that is here.

Wading River Extension

When the construction of the Port Jefferson Branch was completed in 1868, it was thought that the line would not be extended further east as there were no important villages past Port Jefferson. Aside from a proposal to extend it to meet up with the Main Line in Riverhead, there were no serious proposals to extend the line further east. Surveyors defined a route from Port Jefferson to Riverhead in October 1883, but nothing resulted from it. In May 1892, surveyors made out a possible right-of-way.In order to fund the project, Austin Corbin proposed the consolidation of the new North Shore Branch with the old Smithtown & Port Jefferson Railroad. The merger would allow for the issuance of a $1,500,000 mortgage on the entire road, and it would therefore allow for the funding of both the extension and a portion of debt that remained from the old Smithtown & Port Jefferson Railroad. On September 23, 1892, the railroads were officially consolidated as the Long Island Railroad Company, North Shore Branch. Benjamin Norton became president of the new railroad and the route was officially adopted on May 20, 1893, running parallel to North Country Road. In the summer of 1893, New York State passed a law requiring all new railroads be double-tracked, but Corbin, using his political influence, was able to get a bill passed through the State Legislature that would exempt the Wading River Extension. Originally, construction was to be completed by June 1, 1894. There was speculation that Wading River would be a temporary terminal and that the road would be built through to Riverhead by the following year. The first rail was laid on July 24, 1894 and the last rail on March 6, 1895.[1]

Construction of the right-of-way was completed in May 1895, and the first passenger train ran on June 22, with the first regularly scheduled passenger train running on June 27, 1895. The Wading River extension was a major accomplishment for the Long Island Rail Road, and the communities along the line thrived with summer business and railroad service increased both on and off season. In the second year of railroad operations, vacationers utilized the line to look at the beauty of the sea shore and the bold wooded bluffs along the line. During the first few days of July 1896, the heaviest travel days at the time, the rail business was booming. Due to an increase of traffic on the line, service was increased on the branch to two trains a day during the winter months in 1897. In February 1906, LIRR president Peters approved the construction of the extension of the North Shore Branch to Riverhead, with work first being scheduled to commence in the next few months. By August, the work was delayed to the following year. The extension never came to fruition.

In the middle of the 1910s, Monday through Saturday service was limited to two trains per day in both directions. Two of these trains contained parlor cars, which was a service premium on the road. Saturday service included an additional eastbound parlor car train. Sunday service was a total of three trains in both directions. However, in the summer of 1914, the company failed to profit in transient summer business, which represented a large part of its revenue.

With the growing popularity of automobiles in the 1920s, suburban residents chose to use their own personal vehicles instead of waiting for one of the few daily trains along the Wading River Branch. Slowly, the quality of service diminished and the New York State Public Service Commission authorized an investigation of the delays on the entire Wading River Branch. A public hearing was held on November 22, 1922, and further investigation

Although the LIRR blamed a recent railroad strike and coal strike, a public hearing was held on November 22, 1922. Further investigation throughout the decade led the commission to order the company to make certain changes and improvements in its service to Nassau and Suffolk. These related to regulations, practices, equipment, facilities, and service. In the wake of scrutiny and declining ridership, the LIRR was forced to abandon its experimental farm at Wading River. The project, undertaken in 1906, was opened by the company’s short-lived Agricultural Department to prove that land was capable of producing high-quality, valuable agricultural products. By 1930, both the Wading River and Medford locations were sold.

By the end of the 1920s, the loss of customers led to service changes on the Wading River Extension and resulted in multiple attempts to abandon the line. In October 1927, steam-hauled trains were replaced with a one-car combination engine and coach. This car was supposed to connect with regular steam service at Port Jefferson, and it operated one roundtrip daily. During the summer of 1928, service was two daily trains, eastbound and westbound, and three to four trains on Sundays. The first attempt to discontinue the extension was in 1932. Citing revenue loss, the LIRR posted signs at all stations suggesting that it intended to abandon the branch on June 1, 1933. Residents of the neighboring communities turned to the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) in order to prevent the abandonment of the line, and the LIRR was forced to continue service when it failed to get the backing of the Public Service Commission.

In 1933, the LIRR tried to rid itself of the branch again, this time turning to the Interstate Commerce Commission. One examiner of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ruled in favor of abandonment. The commission, in a report published on February 9, 1934, cited an annual saving of $21,000 if service was discontinued, and it pointed out that the area that the line served was seasonal, with a population of 10,000 in the summer as opposed to 1,500 in the winter. As a result, in the winter of 1934, winter service was discontinued, meaning that service on the branch would only operate between May and October. Steam service replaced the combination engine and coach car in the summer of 1933, saving the LIRR $500 a year since the combination vehicle had problems. On April 25, 1934, the ICC denied the petition for abandonment because of the construction of an orphan asylum. The summer-only service would last six seasons, and by 1937, there were two eastbound trains daily and one westbound. On Sundays, there was one train in both directions. Another application was sent to the ICC in 1938, and it grant the LIRR permission to abandon the Wading River Extension on September 27, 1938. The last timetable to display revenue service was the timetable effective September 18, 1938. Revenue service on the branch ended on Sunday, October 8, 1938, and the branch was officially out of service March 29, 1939.[2]

The Wading River terminal had a wye, located north of the tracks to turn engines around. It also had a wooden, two-stall engine house south of the tracks along with coaling and watering facilities.

The LIRR’s main track ended on the west side of Wading River-Manor Road, with the depot building on the north side of the tracks. However, a siding used to service a coal supplier branched south off the main and extended further east across Wading River-Manor Road a distance. So . . . . while the LIRR’s end-of-track was technically on the west side of Wading River-Manor Road, it really extended further, via the siding.

As business got really slow, the railroad stopped running actual trains out to Wading River, but ran a shuttle service between Port Jefferson and Wading River utilizing a self-propelled gas car, nicknamed a “doodlebug.” This car ran on gasoline and carried passengers as well as baggage and could operate with only a motorman and a conductor. Quite a bit of savings from a steam locomotive and tender using lots of coal and water had having a full crew of engineer, fireman, conductor, trainman and brakeman.

In January 1938, the end-of-track was cut back one mile west with a low-level platform constructed for use as the new station.

The right-of-way was acquired by Long Island Lighting Company to run their power lines. The right-of-way is now used by LIPA, the successor to LILCO. The stone overpass at Woodville Road in Shoreham is the last of the right-of-way structures that is still intact. The wooden trestle over the tracks at Miller’s Place was dismantled in 1939. The stone overpass at Rocky Point was demolished around the same time and the reddish-brown stones were shipped up the road and used as a retaining wall at Cedar Beach. The depot building at Rocky Point is still standing, having been moved slightly south of the original right-of-way and onto private property and has been incorporated into the structures on their grounds.

References

  1. ^ "The Forgotten Spur: The Chronicle of the Long Island Rail Road Wading River Extension and the Adjoining Communities". Derek Stadler. March 11, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  2. ^ "Wading River Branch". www.lirrhistory.com. Retrieved April 28, 2016.

Flushing Railroad

The first non-LIRR line on Long Island was the Flushing Railroad, incorporated in 1852, which opened on June 26, 1854 from Long Island City to Flushing, before the LIRR opened its line to Long Island City.[1]This line ran from Hunter's Point east to Haberman, and then it went north following what is close to what are now Maurice and Garfield Avenues, and then to Winfield and Flushing along the current Port Washington Branch ROW. The line was 7.47 miles long with a second track 0.4 miles long.

When the Flushing Railroad was being discussed in about 1850, a wave of enthusiasm spread through the North Shore villages from Flushing eastward to Huntington. The Long Island Rail Road was built through the center of the island, ignoring the old and populous villages on the north and south shore. When the Flushing Railroad project came up, these villages on the North Shore saw a chance for a railroad connection. Once the construction of the railroad became a certainty in 1852, villages to the east, particularly Huntington, showed strong interest in the project, holding rallies of townspeople and suggesting the idea in newspapers. The directors of the Flushing Railroad were willing to extend the line eastward past the Flushing terminal. On August 30, 1853, a corps of engineers and surveyors started a survey at Kissena Boulevard in Flushing and passing south of Alley Pond. At the end of the preliminary survey, twenty-two miles had been covered with three or four possible lines laid out. However, by the end of 1853, the Flushing Railroad did not have the means to extend farther east. A map from 1854 shows that the railroad has planned to go all the way to Huntington, going through Roslyn, Oyster Bay and Cold Spring, on the north shore of Long Island.[2][3] Another attempt, this time in Manhasset, to extend the line eastward took place in 1856 yielding nothing. In 1859, wealthy estate owners in Bayside, Great Neck, and Manhasset began to discuss the feasibility of extending the line to Glen Cove.

In 1857, it fell into the hands of a receiver, and it was sold under foreclosure the following year. The company was reorganized on March 22, 1859 as the New York and Flushing Railroad when Oliver Charlick took over the railroad,[4] which had fallen into a state of disrepair and whose quality of service had deteriorated. The railroad has observed the Sabbath and had no trains operating on Sunday, but this changed after the takeover by Charlick when service on Sunday was instituted on June 18, 1859, and the outrage of the local communities. The residents of Flushing convinced the LIRR to incorporate the Flushing and Woodside Railroad on February 24, 1864 to build a competing branch to Flushing – Bridge Street and to Whitestone.[5][6] The line was intended to use the LIRR tracks from Hunter's Point to Woodside, where it would branch off and then run parallel to Jackson Avenue to Flushing, providing a more direct route th an the New York and Flushing Railroad's. Work on the project begun in 1864, however, not much progress was made over the next three years because of legal problems in securing the right-of-way.[7] Despite service complaints, New York and Flushing established a subsidiary called the North Shore Railroad of Long Island in 1866 which extended the line from Flushing to Great Neck[8] Unfortunately, when the line was about half completed, the NY&F realized that they could not survive the competition, and sold their line (and their lease on the North Shore Railroad of Long Island.[9]) to the LIRR in the spring of 1867.[2] The LIRR benefitted by preventing the South Side Railroad from using the New York and Flushing access to the LIRR's Long Island City terminal, and by keeping the North Side Railroad from extending east to Huntington in competition with the LIRR.[10] The LIRR also stopped construction on the incomplete Flushing and Woodside as it felt that the Flushing and Woodside Railroad would end up being a direct competitor to the LIRR. Charlick's intention was to revitalize the NY&F and to run a profitable service to Flushing without any competition.[11][2][12]The New York & Flushing Railroad was operated as a branch, from Hunter's Point to Flushing. 

Rather than just abandoning their road, however, in 1868, the directors and stockholders of the Flushing and Woodside Railroad elected a new president, Elizur B. Hinsdale, and, on April 3, 1868, reorganized the company as the Flushing and North Side Railroad.[6]

The charter of the new railroad authorized the building of a line from Hunter's Point through Flushing and on to Roslyn, with a line branching off at Flushing to College Point and Whitestone.

Once Charlick and the LIRR saw that the Woodside and Flushing line's route was not dead after all, and that the cost of rehabilitating the New York and Flushing would be extremely expensive, he decided to sell the NY&F, including its subsidiary the North Shore RR extension to Great Neck, to the new Flushing & North Side Railroad.

The sale was completed on August 11, 1868. The Flushing and North Side immediately took over the operation of the NY&F; however it was their intent to dispose of the portion from Hunter's Point to Winfield via Maspeth and quickly build a new line from Winfield to Hunter's Point through Woodside to Winfield which would run parallel to, and immediately north of, the LIRR ROW. Construction of the Whitestone line was also given a high priority. However, the completion of the Woodside and Flushing's original ROW was temporarily put on the back-burner - in fact this line would not finally open for service until April 27, 1874!

In April 1869 Conrad Poppenheusen became president of the NS&F and, under his leadership, both the Hunter's Point to Winfield and the Whitestone lines opened by that November.

A group of wealthy College Point and Whitestone citizens, feeling they had been tricked by the LIRR, convinced wealthy residents of College Point and Whitestone, including Conrad Poppenhusen, bought out the stock of the old Flushing and Woodside Railroad and set out to complete the line. The construction of the line was done under the name of the Flushing and North Side Railroad, which was incorporated in 1868.

This company had the right to build a line from Long Island City to Flushing and beyond to Roslyn, with a branch from Flushing to Whitestone.

The group gained control of the unfinished Flushing and Woodside Railroad, and opened its line to Flushing, paralleling the LIRR from Long Island City to Woodside, in 1868[13] and to College Point and Whitestone on November 27, 1869.[14][15] This new line attracted most of the traffic from the older New York and Flushing, and the LIRR wanted to get rid of its Flushing branch.

In 1869, the state legislature authorized the Flushing and North Side to buy the New York and Flushing east of the LIRR crossing at Winfield;[14] connections were built by the Flushing and North Side at Woodside/Winfield and Flushing to connect its lines. The Haberman to Winfield portion of the New York and Flushing line was abandoned and a new right-of-way through Woodside was built. The New York and Flushing continued to own the line west of Winfield, and the Hunter's Point to Haberman portion soon became the South Side Railroad's access to Long Island City.

The Flushing and Woodside was merged into the Flushing and North Side in 1871, and its line was abandoned in favor of the ex-New York and Flushing line.[16][17] The line was extended to Whitestone Landing in 1883 by the Whitestone and Westchester Railroad Company, having been consolidated with the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad in 1874, before it was built.[18]

References

http://www.thethirdrail.net/0103/reif10.html

http://www.dunton.org/archive/LongIslandRailroad.htm

http://www.lirrhistory.com/F%26NSRR.html

http://arrts-arrchives.com/fnsrr.html

http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/vital/access/services/Download/aql:336/SOURCE1?view=true

  1. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1854" (PDF). (79.1 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  2. ^ a b c "Flushing". www.lirrhistory.com. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  3. ^ "Reports of the Committee and Engineer on the Preliminary Survey of the North Side Railroad". lirrhistory.com. 1854. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1859" (PDF). (60.9 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  5. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1864" (PDF). (109 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  6. ^ a b "FLUSHING & WOODSIDE R. R." www.arrts-arrchives.com. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  7. ^ "The Flushing and North Side RR". lirrhistory.com. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  8. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1866" (PDF). (89.2 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  9. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1866" (PDF). (89.2 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  10. ^ PRR Chronology 1867 (June 2004 edition)
  11. ^ Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Steel Rails to the Sunrise, ©1965
  12. ^ Peter Ross, A History of Long Island From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, History of the Long Island Railroad, 1903
  13. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1868" (PDF). (93.8 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  14. ^ a b "PRR Chronology, 1869" (PDF). (114 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  15. ^ "NEW RAILROAD ENTERPRISE.; Opening of the New-York, Flushing and North Side Railroad to Whitestone--Excursion, Dinner Speeches Procession, &c". query.nytimes.com. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  16. ^ Peter Ross, A History of Long Island From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, History of the Long Island Railroad, 1903
  17. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1871" (PDF). (72.9 KiB), January 2005 Edition
  18. ^ "LIRR History Part 1 - Page 10". www.thethirdrail.net. Retrieved May 8, 2016.

Evergreen Branch

Evergreen Branch
1878 map, including the Evergreen Branch to Greenpoint
Overview
StatusAbandoned
OwnerLong Island Rail Road
LocaleBrooklyn, New York, USA
Termini
Stations8
Service
SystemLong Island Rail Road
Operator(s)Long Island Rail Road
History
Opened1874
Closed1984
Technical
Number of tracks2
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
The remnants of the Evergreen Branch crossing Halsey Street in Bushwick.

The Evergreen Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road that ran in Brooklyn and part of Queens in New York City. It was inherited as a former segment of the New York and Manhattan Beach Railroad and ran from Greenpoint, Brooklyn to what is today Ridgewood, Queens.

History

The origin of the Evergreen Branch traces back to the Glendale and East River Railroad (G&ER), which was incorporated on March 26, 1874,[1]: 38 [2] to build from Quay Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Huntington on Long Island, running through Glendale, Queens.[3][4] It was incorporated to provide the South Side Railroad with an alternate terminal on the Greenpoint waterfront. The line was no longer needed once the Poppenhusens bought the South Side. The idea for a line to Greenpoint reemerged when Austin Corbin proposed the New York & Manhattan Beach Railway Company (NY&MB) to connect his resorts in Manhattan Beach with New York City via ferry service in Greenpoint. On April 3, 1878 he leased the G&ER to serve as the northern portion of his line,[2] and to bridge the gap between that line and his line in East New York, the G&ER's southern terminus was extended from Jefferson Avenue to East New York.[5] The charter of the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad (part of the present-day BMT Canarsie Line),[6][7] which gave its right to construct an extension to Hunter's Point to the NY&MB, allowed for the extension to be completed.[8] Grading took place in 1877 and the tracks were mostly laid in early 1878. The line from East New York to Greenpoint opened at the beginning of the season on May 16, 1878.[9][10] On this date, stations were also opened at Humboldt Street, Grand Street, and South Side Railroad Crossing, which was removed from timetables effective May 25, 1881. In spring 1879 a second track was laid, and it was completed for the opening of the summer season on May 24.[11]

After Corbin purchased the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in December 1880, the line was consolidated within the LIRR. Corbin, after the line's acquisition, was one of the tax directors of the G&ER.[12]: 1221  On May 1, 1882, the NY&MB was acquired by the New York, Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach Railroad (NYB&MB), transferring the lease of the G&ER's property. On that date, the NYB&MB leased its property and subleased the G&ER to the LIRR for 99 years.[2] In February 1883 the Long Island City & Manhattan Beach Railroad Company was organized to build a standard-gauge right-of-way to connect the Manhattan Beach Branch with the Brooklyn & Montauk Railroad. The new line ran between from Cooper Avenue Junction to the Montauk Division at Fresh Pond, opening later in the year. The line opened later that year, Starting with the 1883 season, direct service to Manhattan Beach from Greenpoint was ended in favor of direct service from Long Island City. However, service was maintained to Greenpoint with a shuttle running to Cooper Avenue Junction in Bushwick, where passengers connected to Manhattan Beach trains.[13][13] The following year, the roadbed from Greenpoint to Cooper Avenue was completely rebuilt, allowing standard gauge trains to use the line. This allowed for freight to serve the line, beginning its transition from a passenger line to a freight line.[14] The stations at Humboldt Street and Grand Street closed on September 28, 1885, with the final passenger trains running on the branch on May 8, 1886. In October 1885, 2.33 miles (3.75 km) of the line, from Greenpoint to South Side Crossing was abandoned.[2] Since service to Greenpoint had been abandoned after the previous summer, a Bushwick shuttle was instituted–running through the 1894 season. Freight service on the line Greenpoint continued until 1890. Between 1896 and 1897 the right of way between Greenpoint and South Side Crossing was abandoned.[13] There is supposedly no trace of the Greenpoint service to the west of South Side Crossing.

Decline

Upon the dissolution of the Manhattan Beach Branch in 1924, the line became a freight spur between the Bushwick Branch and Bay Ridge Branch in Brooklyn. Eight blocks of tracks were removed on February 9, 1939. The following crossings were closed on that date: Himrod Street; Stanhope Street; DeKalb Avenue; Hart Street; Suydam Street; Willoughby Avenue and Starr Street.[13]

When the branch became part of Conrail, it became known as the Evergreen Industrial Track.[15]: 28, 57 

A few customers remained at the Bushwick end until at least the 1970s, which always remained owned and operated by the LIRR, as part of their Bushwick branch. Today some of this property still belongs to the MTA – including the triangular lot at Flushing and Stewart Avenues. 

By the late 1970s, the Cooper Junction end of the line only had one remaining customer: Tulnoy Lumber, located at Putnam Avenue. After they closed this location, Conrail filed to abandon the line in 1983. However, the Interstate Commerce Commission postponed authorization for abandonment to review offers from the Long Island Rail Road and the New York Department of Transportation. Conrail filed to abandon the line as it was "earning insufficient revenues over the tracks." The New York Department of Transportation offered $2 million for the line, while the LIRR offered $3 million for the line. However, Conrail valued the line at $5,259,988.[16]: 70 [15]: 28, 57  Since it could get more money by selling to private entities, it quickly sold every lot from Cooper Avenue to Putnam Avenue. While the Bay Ridge Line was sold to the Long Island Rail Road in 1984, the Evergreen Branch was not part of the transaction. The property that was owned by Tulnoy Lumber was sold to be used as the parking lot for Food Bazaar.[17]

Back to the Cooper Junction end of the line, by the 1970s there only seemed to be one customer receiving freight cars irregularly: Tulnoy Lumber, located at Putnam Avenue. They probably didn’t receive more than a dozen or two cars per year. Around 1984, Tulnoy closed their Putnam avenue location. With no customers left on this route, Conrail filed to ‘abandon’ the tracks, and quickly sold each lot between Putnam and the present day freight tracks east of Cooper Avenue. Conrail later sold the Bay Ridge line to the LIRR in 1984. The Evergreen tracks and property were not a part of this transaction. 

Given the timing here, with the LIRR buying the Bay Ridge branch tracks in 1984, it would make sense that rail history buffs believed the LIRR also bought the Evergreen back. It just happens that Tulnoy, the only remaining customer on that route and only reason for it’s existence, closed around the same time. Operationally, it would have made sense for Conrail to sell the Evergreen to the LIRR as part of the 1984 deal, but I suspect Tulnoy had already closed up shop a few months earlier. In terms of real estate, it obviously made way more sense for Conrail to sell the property on the open market, where I’m sure they made some decent money. 

Further dismantling took place between 1957 and 1962 and throughout much of the late 20th century. In 1965, when New York State purchased the Long Island Railroad, the Bay Ridge and Evergreen branches remained part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Subsequently, they became part of Penn Central and Conrail. In 1984, the Long Island Railroad again took over the Bay Ridge Branch but decided to abandon the Evergreen Branch and its sole consignee.[13]

Origin of the name of the branch

The Evergreen Branch traces its name to the time period when map printers applied the name ‘Ridgewood’ to an area larger than that of the town limits. As a result, the tight-knit community changed its name to ‘Evergreen' after the large nearby Cemetery of the Evergreens. In 1910, the name Ridgewood was officially bestowed upon the entire area nestled between Glendale and Bushwick.[18]

Development along the right-of-way

In 2014 there were three applications to acquire property along the former right of way of the Evergreen Branch. The three properties are at: 375 Grove Street, for which the sale was completed; 406 Cornelia Street; and 1503 Jefferson Avenue.[19]

Route description

Originally, the Evergreen Branch began at the East River in Greenpoint, with a depot at Oak and West Streets. From there it ran southeast along North 15th Street to Richardson Street. Then it turned east along Richardson to Vandervoort Avenue where it turned southeast.

It then crossed Metropolitan Avenue, Grand Street, and a portion of Newtown Creek, the South Side Railroad's Bushwick branch. After that, it crossed over Varick Avenue, continued across Johnson Avenue, and alongside the main tracks was Varick Avenue Yard.

Varick Avenue Yard was on the northwest side of Flushing Avenue and was a rather substantial yard with a number of team tracks and sidings. It consisted of a passing siding, which allowed access to the seven team tracks, the house track, and four tracks stubbing against the Bushwick freight house, which was located along Varick Avenue. Also located along the Varick Avenue side of the yard was the LIRR’s freight shed and some other warehouses. There was a traveling overhead crane that straddled two shorter sidings paralleling Varick Avenue and a scale track and scale house on the other side of the main, opposite the team tracks. Varick Avenue Yard was removed in 1963, and the LIRR freight houses along Varick Avenue were torn down.

The Evergreen Branch then proceeded east between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues. Along this route, between Flushing Avenue and Jefferson Street, there were some more sidings and factories. The Brooklyn and Queens Transit trolley ran along Flushing Avenue and crossed the Evergreen Branch. There was then a siding between DeKalb Avenue and Stockholm Street. And up to Himrod Street, there were diamond crossing signs which indicated the presence of the Evergreen Branch to motorists.

After Himrod Street there was an unusual arrangement in which the gates were all across the tracks, protecting the streets, instead of vice versa with the crossing gates being across the streets to protect the tracks. There was a siding between Grove Street and Menahan Street. The Evergreen Branch then crossed under the Myrtle Avenue Elevated, and there was a siding between Gates and Linden. The arrangement concerning the gates stopped at Palmetto Avenue.

At Putnam Avenue was the start of the Evergreen Yard”at Evergreen freight station. The Evergreen freight office was a small, square block building. The yard consisted of a private siding and two team tracks, stubbing behind the freight office.

At Cornelia Street the tracks dipped southward and continued to the regular alignment after Cornelia Street. The line continued across Halsey Street, where there was an old B&QT trolley line; the trolley frogs crossing the LIRR tracks were still visible as of November 1958. There were some sidings for warehouses and factories at Halsey, Covert and Decatur Streets. The line then proceeded southeast and connected with the Bay Ridge Branch at Cooper Avenue Junction near the Cemetery of the Evergreens.[20][21][22][23]

https://books.google.com/books?id=03FLAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA11&dq=%22evergreen+branch%22+%22%C2%A0Glendale+and+East+River+Railroad%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPq96HqpvWAhUK7iYKHaLxAv8Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22evergreen%20branch%22%20%22%C2%A0Glendale%20and%20East%20River%20Railroad%22&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=l8Q7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA26&dq=%22evergreen+branch%22+%22long+island+rail+road%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigrKmfpZvWAhXBwiYKHcTiASQQ6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=%22evergreen%20branch%22%20%22long%20island%20rail%20road%22&f=false

Evergreen Branch Property Owned by MTA

Station list

Miles Name Opened Closed Notes
0[24] Greenpoint May 16, 1878 September 28, 1885
0.56[24] Fifth Street 1878 1879
0.99[24] Humboldt Street May 16, 1878 September 28, 1885
1.75[24] Grand Street May 16, 1878 September 28, 1885
2.33 South Side Railroad Crossing May 16, 1878
June 1886 		May 25, 1881
1890 		Crossing with Bushwick Branch near Varick Avenue
Ridgewood
earlier DeKalb Avenue 		July 14, 1878 1894
3.26[24] Myrtle Avenue May 16, 1878 May 1882
3.95[24] Cooper Avenue June 2, 1883 1894 Crossing with Bay Ridge Branch; Also called Cooper Avenue Junction

See also

References

  1. ^ Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Steel Rails to the Sunrise, ©1965
  2. ^ a b c d * "Valuation Reports Vol. 36 pp 79-81". rnetzlof.pennsyrr.com. Interstate Commerce Commission. 1932. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  3. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1874" (PDF). (95.9 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  4. ^ "THE GLENDALE AND EAST RIVER ROAD". The New York Times. April 23, 1876. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  5. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1876" (PDF). (116 KiB), April 2006 Edition
  6. ^ Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Report: New York, Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach
  7. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1877" (PDF). (156 KiB), June 2006 Edition
  8. ^ "P. R. R. Interests Win and Keep L. I. City Rights". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. May 29, 1902. p. 3. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  9. ^ "Manhattan Beach". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. May 16, 1878. p. 1. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  10. ^ "Opened". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. May 17, 1878. p. 4.
  11. ^ "Modern Urban Neighborhood: A Look at Williamsburg with a Focus on its Infrastructure". Derek Stadler. July 2, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  12. ^ Railway Locomotives and Cars. Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. 1881.
  13. ^ a b c d e Huneke, Arthur (2009). "THE L.I.R.R.'S EVERGREEN BRANCH". arrts-arrchives.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  14. ^ Long Island Railroad Information Bulletin. February 20, 1924.
  15. ^ a b Traffic World. Traffic Service Corporation. 1984.
  16. ^ The Traffic World. Traffic Service Corporation. 1983.
  17. ^ "Brooklyn's long forgotten railroad, Part 2". LTV Squad. September 6, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  18. ^ Wilkinson, Christina (July 2005). "RIDGEWOOD, Queens". forgotten-ny.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  19. ^ "Real Estate Round Up". wyckoffheights.org. September 30, 2014. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Anderson, Bob. "Evergreen Branch". lirrhistory.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  21. ^ Emery, Robert. "Evergreen Branch Track Map Linden Street to Decatur Street". lirrhistory.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  22. ^ Emery, Robert. "Evergreen Branch Track Map Jefferson Street to Linden Street". lirrhistory.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  23. ^ Emery, Robert. "Evergreen Branch Track Map Varick Avenue to Jefferson Street". lirrhistory.com. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  24. ^ a b c d e f "1879 REPORT TO NEW YORK STATE RAILROAD COMMISSION". arrts-arrchives.com. p. 72. Retrieved September 7, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
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